Cheesecake Recipes

Have you ever cooked a turducken? In case you don't know what a turducken is, it's a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken. Turduckens are usually stuffed with breadcrumb dressing. Well, the idea for this elaborate dessert is smilar in concept, but a sweet version. I wanted to layer one dessert into another and create a special, sweet treat: a cookie cake pie.

Somehow I managed to wrestle the whole thing together and came up with a dessert that I think made sense. It consisted of an almond passion fruit cheesecake inside an almondine tart, which is stuffed into a vanilla chocolate slivered almond cookie pie and finally layered on puff pastry dough.

I rarely make exactly the same dish twice. Once you've worked on your fundamentals, you can start to use the basic recipe and create dozens of different variations. This unique dessert is a true reflection of my cuisine. I love experimenting with new dishes and seeing my loved ones enjoying the fruit of my labor. Now all I need is to come up with a clever name for this unique dessert!

This dessert might look complicated, but trust me, it took me all of 20 minutes tops to assemble it. It's an egg-free, no-bake blueberry cheesecake. I still had a couple of jars of Meyer lemon marmalade from last season and I julienned the lemon rind to flavor the cheesecake and decorate it as well. The citrus provides a great balance of flavor.

This sort of cheesecake only requires a handful of ingredients, which includes quality lady finger cookies, mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, a hint of tangy crème fraîche, fresh blueberries, Meyer lemon marmalade (or whatever you have on hand) and a combination of lecithin, xanthan gum and a bit of oil. That's pretty much it.

If you're looking for an excuse to eat more cheesecake, you'll be happy to know that Sunday is National Cheesecake Day. You could just go to your local Cheesecake Factory (half-off sale on any cheesecake slice for dine-in guests), but if you're feeling a bit more adventuresome, you can make one yourself.

I've listed below all the cheesecake recipes I've posted in the past for your viewing pleasure. A basic cheesecake recipe is like ice cream: it serves as an excellent palette for other flavors. Get creative!

It's National Cheesecake Day this weekend and, though I’ve made many cheesecakes in the past, my goal was to put a new twist on the special dessert. Since we were invited to our friend Carol's home (she’s gluten intolerant), I decided to make my cheesecake gluten-free.

I made the mousse egg-free and flavored it with both raspberries and strawberries. For a contrast in texture, I added a layer of crunchy, diced yellow nectarines. And to make it look more fun, I topped the dessert cups with pistachio-flavored whipped cream and crushed pistachios. I don’t think anyone missed the crust. For those who could eat gluten, I slipped a ladyfinger cookie into the verrine. How amazing does that sound?